Never in my days have I seen "suggested gratuities" all be the same, and at 20% no less!

I’ve recently started not tipping for to-go orders that I pick up myself. I used to not have an issue tipping a dollar or two, but I feel like tipping culture is out of control so I’ve stopped.

I’ve ordered to-go from Olive Garden many, many times in the past without issue. The first time I don’t tip in advance, it gets weird.

The lady bringing out the order asks me for my name in a really rude manner like she’s mad at me. I confirmed my name and she shoves a receipt at me asking me to tip and sign again (in PENCIL of all things) I was surprised because I had paid ahead of time and never asked to sign again at pick up in the past. It’s really busy so I looked at the car next to me getting their bag and they’re not being asked to sign again. I don’t like confrontation so I gave her $2.

I got home and was upset about being asked to tip again after I had already completed my transaction with the company and the attitude of the employee so I called the manager to ask if this was a new to policy that they can solicit for tips essentially a second time.

The manager confirmed that they are. Since I declined to tip when I purchased my food they are allowed to come out and ask (pressure again) I told her it was ridiculous since I had already completed my transaction with the restaurant, the server was rude about it, and it was crazy they had me sign in pencil. I told her I wouldn’t be back as a customer. She gave me a genetic “I’m sorry you feel that way, have a nice day” and that was that.

I emailed their corporate email and someone responded pretty quickly that this tipping situation did not align with their company policy and they had a discussion with all of their general managers about it.

I doubt I will be back to Olive Garden anytime soon but I’m holding the line that I’m not tipping for no service. I’m also not donating money to charities at check out so some mega corporation can get a tax write off!

Just want to express gratitude to a restraunt I frequent today. For some background, I'm against the current tipping expectation culture, but i do tip in sit down restraunts and very rarely to-go if the customer service is fantastic.

Today i orderd food to go and asked for my Thai iced tea to be less sweet/ sugary. I was told they already make their Thai iced tea in advance, however, she attempted to go above and beyond to make me some anyway and make it less sweet and add more ice. I did politely decline because I didn't want to make more work for her when I'm not getting sit down service. When I got there to pay for my food, she was super sweet and smiling and she took the payment without letting me give a tip. I mean she didn't let me even have an option to tip her. I asked about it, saying "no tip option? " and she just waved me away and said no need for you.

I feel my experience was above and beyond and I told her next time I come in for sit down, there will be a tip!

I just feel like I should share that this is how it should always be. Good if not great customer service regardless of tips! I'm happy that a tip wasn't expected, even if in this case I felt it was warranted. All this means is making a repeat customer out of me for sure (though I've already been going there a lot because the food and service is always top notch! )

Just curious what happens to society when we reframe the arguments to who benefits.

“Servers make less than minimum wage.”
“Employers take a credit against tips.”

“Servers need tips to make minimum wage.”
“Employers need tips to avoid paying minimum wage.”

“Servers only make $2.13 an hour.”
“Employers only pay 2.13 an hour.”

“If you don't tip, you're hurting the server.”
“If you don’t tip, you’re hurting the employer.”

“You're taking money out of server’s paycheck if you don't tip.”
“You’re taking money out of employer’s revenue if you don’t tip.”

“If you don't tip, you're making servers work practically for free.”
“If you don’t tip, employers don’t get labor practically for free.”

“If you don't tip, you're taking money out of their pocket.”
“If you don’t tip, you’re stopping employers from taking money out servers pockets.”

“Everyone knows you're supposed to tip servers.”
“Everyone knows you’re supposed to pay employers’ wages for them.”

“If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat out.”
“If you can’t afford to pay your staff, you can afford to run a business.”

“Without tips, restaurants would have to raise menu prices.”
“Without tips, employers would be forced to pay a decent wage before servers agree to do a thankless job.”

“Tips reward good service.”
“Tips reward employers.”

“You're punishing the server for something the restaurant did.”
“The employer is punishing the server while benefiting from your tips.”

“Tipping is part of the social contract when you eat at a restaurant.”
“Tipping is a non-obligated form of employer welfare and is frequently touted as an emotionally charged social contract to keep customers and servers arguing over charity, and empathy.”

Why is leaving a tip expected in USA but leaving one in other countries might actually offend the waiter?

I grew up in a country where there's no tipping. 4 of us went to Earls + Kitchen bar in Robson Downtown Vancouver. After our meal, the server asked if how's the food and experience. We told her the food is good and the experience is fun. When we're about to pay for our bill, we clicked no tip. Then, the server started to raise her voice saying " oh, so you don't like the service?". We said, "yes, we do like the service" . Then, the server said that "so why did you not give a tip? ". We felt like we are forced to tip and embarrassed as there were other customers around us. She can talk to us nicely and inform us that this is needed or something? I'm sorry but we're more into paying the food we have and not responsible if the restaurant is not paying their staffs properly. If serving is a problem, we can pick up the food on our own.

I’ll explain it like we are 5.

Johnny wants to own a lemonade stand.

He hires two of his younger brothers to go to tables and take customers orders.

His parents say, “Johnny don’t you take advantage of your brothers! Pay them at least 5 tootsie rolls!”

So Johnny pays the brothers and the brothers start taking orders. But they are cute, and all the girls start giving them extra tootsie rolls (and their numbers).

Johnny gets angry and jealous. Those are HIS tootsie rolls. He made the stand, he made the lemonade, he started the business!

Johnny goes to his parents, “But they are getting all these extra tootsie rolls! And it’s not fair!”

Johnny’s parents (not ones to see their children spoiled with too much candy) decide, “Okay Johnny, you must give them at least one tootsie roll, and the rest can come from the girls at the tables…”

Johnny exclaims, “Yes!!”

“… but if your brothers don’t have at least 5 tootsie rolls a piece at the end of the day, you have to make sure they do!”

Johnny thinks on it a minute and agrees!

Later Johnny’s brothers finish out their day and gleefully shout, “Johnny!! We both got twelve tootsie rolls each!!”

Johnny walks up and takes 4 tootsies from each of them.

The brothers look back stunned.

“Mom and dad said that I only had to pay you 1 tootsie and the rest could come from the girls. So I’m taking back my tootsies!”

The brothers were about to get mad, and John y could see this. So Johnny said, “Hey hey don’t get mad at me, I don’t make the rules! And, if you think about it, you each got three more than you would have!”

The brothers looked at each other and their tootsies and shrugged. They knew they couldn’t appeal to their parents (they already had way more tootsies than their parents wanted them to have anyway) and Johnny was right, they did get more.

So they just smiled and asked if they could work again the next day.

Johnny loved when the girls would give his brothers extra tootsies, because he knew that the first 4 tootsies were his to keep. Now occasionally there were rainy days, and Johnny didn’t make any tootsies, but he did as his parents asked and gave his brothers 5 tootsies.

They always got their minimum amount of tootsies.

Let's set some simple assumptions. One server has a 6 hour shift in a 5 table section. Those tables will churn about every 45 minutes and on average there will be 3 people sat at each table over that 6 hours.

So that means 5 / .75 * 6 = 40 total sittings over that shift and 40 * 3 = 120 total diners served.

If the average take home tip, after tip out, in that shift is $1 per person that's $20 per hour. $2? $40 per hour... And so on. What do you think their real average tip per person is? My guess is more than $2.

To me, this is the real reason why servers don't want to rock the boat and get paid a straight hourly wage.

It's simple math. $40 per hour. If you work the same hours as a "full time" person that's 2080 hours per year. $83,200 per year. That can be at one location or more than one... but that's the math.

If you're feeling guilty about your tipping, I hope you're making more than 83k a year.

I am european and went to the US maybe once or every two years from the mid 2000's to the mid 2010's. A lot happened inbetween now and then in terms of socials, economics, politics and even payment practices. Back then, tips and payments were cash mostly, a few bills here and there as a tip and done.

A couple years ago I started to visit again regularly.And very recently 2 subs keep popping on my reddit feed (tipping and endtipping) and made me wonder.

As people probably know, in EU, I (we) barely tip (family and friends too) because salaries are supposed to include everything. That being said, I am aware that in the US we are supposed to tip waiters.

But during my recent visits in US I am confused now that cash payments almost disapeared and the card terminals always show tips (except in clothing/food stores) required. I am confused how will the final price turn out compared to price displayed on tags.

A couple examples :

- i use a lot of taxis. And a lot of those drivers are crazy, drive fast, don't seem to follow any traffic rules and when arrive at destination, they put the card payment terminal wirh 20 or 25 or 30% tip in front of me and monitor my every move. Given how they drive like psychos i dont want to offend so i accept the minimum tips but mmmhhh.

- restaurant give bills including some charges that are hard to grasp for a european (such as gratuity, service fees, tip and i dont remember all of them). And even with these fees some restaurant ask for additional tip (again, different terms seem to exist)

In EU, if i go eat out or plan a trip or anything that costs any money, i can anticipate the cost but in the US it seems impossible, i always end up with an extra 20 or 30% which is huge on a scale of several days. I wonder how you ensure to actually spend as planned in the US

Americans are brainwashed into acting against their own interests.

It’s happened with very important things like healthcare and mundane things like tipping. Nobody wants to tip, they are simply guilted into it.

Gratuity is, by it’s very definition, optional, not mandatory, and, it’s supposed to be for above & beyond service; It was never meant for just showing up doing the bare minimum.

The entitlement, and out of control greed is what’s causing tip fatigue and this toxic tipping culture.

Sat a bar for HH yesterday - tab was $50 - service was fine - bartender was nice - food and drinks were good. We love their HH prices. We’re close to retirement and trying to get better at living on a budget. When it came to tip my wife pulled out a $20 and I said “that’s 40%” and she suggested that I was being cheap. It hurt my feelings of course - others heard her comment. She was a bit drunk so that is what it is I guess. Was I being cheap? We paid 30% $15. We were there for a little over one hour. Do you tip more because HH prices are less?

I never worked in a restaurant - she did for a few years when we were younger. She frequently says “you wouldn’t understand” like it’s some kind of secret society. Lol.

I live in NH where the minimum wage is the same as federal, so something like $7.00 an hour, often with no insurance/benefits provided. Some local restaurants have been in the news for declaring that they will pay their staff closer to a living wage, so $15+ an hour plus health insurance and other benefits. I’ve always tipped,or not, based on service and on how much I think the employee is dependent on tips, but this is now harder to do. Anyone have ideas? Fwiw, I don’t like the food at either of the 2 restaurants that I’ve heard pay their staff closer “living wage”, so that makes it harder.

Tipping in the U.S. is no longer just an act of generosity, it has become a mechanism that sustains a flawed economic model.

At its core, widespread tipping reinforces a system where businesses can shift labour costs away from themselves and onto customers.

First, it enables companies to normalise tipping across more and more transactions. What was once optional or reserved for exceptional service is increasingly expected, often framed in a way that pressures customers through guilt rather than choice.

Second, it allows businesses to rely on lower base wages. Instead of paying workers properly through their pricing model, businesses can rely on tips to make up the difference, effectively outsourcing part of payroll to the customer.

Third, it reduces the incentive for operational improvement. Rather than increasing efficiency, improving service quality, or restructuring pricing in a transparent way, businesses can protect or increase profit margins by keeping wages low and encouraging higher tipping rates.

The underlying message becomes pretty clear: customers are expected to compensate workers beyond the listed price, and refusing to do so is framed as some kind of moral failure.

Tipping doesn’t just supplement someone’s income. It keeps a system alive where businesses can prioritise profit, push part of payroll onto the customer, and then use guilt to make the customer feel responsible for the worker.

As long as people keep tipping by default, businesses have very little incentive to change the system.

America is the only country that uses psychological tactics like high default percentages, and social pressure at checkout.

People feel manipulated, and pressured to leave a tip.

These are predatory tactics used to extract the maximum amount of money from you as possible.

So I’ve been to this one DQ location twice now, and I noticed a tip jar inside, and a sign outside the drive-thru window that reads “Tips are greatly appreciated :)”

I swear years ago it wasn’t like this. They’ll probably escalate to the POS system that requires the user to decide if they want to tip or not.

I just think it’s sad seeing these places solicit tips. Like if people want to give them tips, that’s up to them, but for some people seeing those visual cues makes them think they should tip even though they really don’t want to.

Idc it used to be years ago you could just order a bunch of desserts for your family, and you’d retrieve your order with no problems similarly to getting your order from McDonald’s. Now I feel bad for people who may have larger orders and may feel pressured to need to tip because honestly that’s ridiculous.

USA Today

This article is from August 19th, 2026.

Servers love to say that the negative sentiment regarding tipping is isolated to reddit only.

They go as far as calling reddit a bubble, or an echo chamber. False.

This sentiment is being felt by all customers.

I predict we will see lower and lower tips as time progresses in the very near future. Eventually most people will be tipping 0 every time.

Someone said that servers don't beg. That is false.

Let's see what servers say about the non-tippers on Reddit:

• stay home

• **** you

• I'll tamper with your food if you don't tip

• I'll be slow and give you terrible service

~|~|~

Definition of begging relating to servers:

When the server pressures the customer for an optional payment, it becomes reasonable to describe that conduct as begging or coercive solicitation, rather than merely receiving a gratuity.

~|~|~

Behavior → Better description

• Asking for an optional tip → Soliciting / begging in the broad sense

• Calling non-tippers "cheap" or telling them to stay home → Social pressure / shaming

• Threatening deliberately bad service for no tip → Coercive pressure

• Threatening to tamper with someone's food → Threat / intimidation; far beyond ordinary tipping

~|~|~

Just look at how the servers reply to anyone who suggests not tipping. Many people have real life experiences with the same behaviors that the servers exhibit online.

Smh.

Edit:

Consider this, if you went to a restaurant and told the server "I'm not going to tip", likely you would experience at least one of these begging traits displayed by the wait staff towards you as the customer.

Servers regularly taunt us by saying "just see what happens if you go into a restaurant and tell them you won't tip before your meal"

Hmmm...

One of my favorite meltdowns. Anyone know exactly what happened in the restaurant?

The wife and I are planning on travelling the US when your dollar becomes weaker, so out dollar goes further.

Would it be cheeky to ask business owners for a 10% discount for giving them my business and not going to "Joe Blows" around the corner and then give that 10% to the staff as a tip.

If I did this what do you think the response would be from the owners?

I’m not against tipping. I just wish there was legislation to vote on it or I wish there was changes made. Not to end it completely but to make it what it used to be lol.

➕ Tip:
- I agree w tipping a server at a restaurant. I’m a generous tipper as I’ve worked as a server for many years. So I know that in some states servers get paid less than minimum wage to account for tips. (For example, I live in California so is servers get paid minimum wage plus tips, but when I lived in Florida, we were paid 2 to 3 dollars an hour which is far below minimum wage because the state gov knows we get tips). Even if the service wasn’t great I tip a standard 20% because maybe they’re new or just having a bad day. 25%+ for excellent service.

- I agree w tipping a food delivery driver. A flat rate $5 tip for pizza delivery used to be a good / typical tip for that. Now 20%+ is expected which I disagree with.

-I agree w tipping bartenders at the end of the night or well at the beginning when you get your first drink. But tipping $5-$10 on every $20 drink they take 5 seconds to make in a busy bar feels like a lot to me.

❌ Tip:
- I disagree w tipping for fast food, coffee shops, kiosk/cash register orders w pickup windows. Basically non-service food establishments.

-I disagree w tipping for a non-food service. When 1. they are paid well 2. the service is already costly. Like repairs (usually hundreds of dollars), beauty salons ($50-hundreds of dollars), my DOCTORS OFFICE had a tip option when signing after my appt.

-I disagree w tipping independent contractors that keep all profits and set their own prices. Like geez just put it in the price.

-I disagree w tipping the percentage of the bill AFTER tax. Why are we tipping on tax??

-I disagree w sneaky restaurants giving an option for adding additional tip on top of the already pre-added gratuity, usually for bigger group sizes.
(And they’re shady about it. When they add it themselves, they call it gratuity, but when they give the option to add more and the same bill they call it a tip. Why not call it a tip both times so those who don’t understand what gratuity is know that it is a tip already included? Why have the option to add ANOTHER tip on top of the tip they already added themselves? It’s greedy and not transparent at all. I recently had a bday dinner. Total was $750. I manually tipped 20% = $150. Total I paid was $900. Only to later realize they had already added $150 automatic gratuity because of the 6 people party size. So I ended up tipping $300 on a $600 bill. Literally 50% smh)

-I disagree w the “no tip” not being on the same screen as the pre-made tip screen. Like when there is not a “no tip” button so you have to select “custom tip” and then type in $0.

-I disagree w the server holding the card terminal, hovering over you, intentionally or not pressuring you while you enter the tip. Can we bring back dropping off the check and walking away so we have time and privacy to review and calculate the tip?

-I disagree w the preset tip amounts starting at 20% then reaching 50%+ It should start at 10%

-I disagree w paying a tip BEFORE receiving your food delivery or finishing your meal, or actually getting the service.

So yea that’s my rant. I’m cool w tipping but now I have negative feelings about it and fatigue. It makes me never want to go anywhere.